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  • Unilever to cut ties with digital influencers

    Unilever to cut ties with digital influencers

    MUMBAI: While brands continue to engage in paid promotions through influencer marketing, consumer goods giant Unilever’s had enough. The world’s second biggest advertiser has decided to stop this practice to promote its products. Companies tend to rely on influencers to generate a buzz around their products on social media. But more often than not, followers of these influencers aren’t real people but fake accounts and bots.

    Hence, Unilever, maker of Sunsilk shampoo, Dove and Lipton tea, wants to help make advertising more transparent and will cut ties with all digital influencers. Unilever spent US $8.9 billion on marketing last year.

    The company’s  chief marketing officer Keith Weed is said to pledge today at the on-going Cannes Lions that Unilever will never buy followers or work with influencers who buy followers.

    “Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback, and we could very quickly see the whole influencer space be undermined. There are lots of great influencers out there, but there are a few bad apples spoiling the barrel and the trouble is, everyone goes down once the trust is undermined,” Weed told Reuters. 

    It was only recently that Unilever threatened Facebook and Google that it will withdraw its advertising on the social media platforms if they fail to remove content that creates division in the society and promotes hate. Weed had said at the time, “As one of the largest advertisers in the world, we cannot have an environment where our consumers don’t trust what they see online.”

    The move also comes as Unilever and Procter & Gamble are in the process of auditing their ad spends and agency relationship to function more efficiently as the industry sale for consumer packed goods has witnessed a drop. To cut down on the advertising and marketing costs, these multinational brands are now working with fewer agencies while creating some of the campaigns in-house rather than spending millions on an ad agency. 

    According to a report by Rakuten Marketing, some UK advertisers were willing to pay US$100,000 to celebrity influencers for a single Facebook post whereas a micro influencer with followers as low as 10,0000 earns as much as 15000 pounds for a single post.

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  • Unilever threatens to pull the plug on digital advertising

    Unilever threatens to pull the plug on digital advertising

    MUMBAI: International major FMCG player Unilever has threatened Facebook and Google that it will withdraw its advertising on the social media platforms if they fail to remove content that creates division in society and promotes hate.

    The biggest multinational player said in a conference held at California that, “As one of the largest advertisers in the world, we cannot have an environment where our consumers don’t trust what they see online.”

    Unilever’s stern step comes while technology and social media companies are facing major criticism for failing to protect children and to erase fake news, hate speech and extremism.

    Unilever chief marketing officer Keith Weed said at the conference that the brand cannot continue to prop up a digital supply chain that delivers over a quarter of their advertising to consumers – which at times is little better than a swamp in terms of its transparency.

    While mentioning that such messages are toxic for the society and only take us backward, Weed added, “Fake news, sexism, toxic content aimed at children, terrorists spreading hate messages are all a part of internet now and we have ended up with a million miles from where we thought it would take us.”

    He goes on to add, “It is in the digital media industry’s interest to listen and act on this. Before viewers stop viewing, advertisers stop advertising and publishers stop publishing.”

    A third of the company’s advertising spend is on the digital medium today and Unilever has decided to cut down on the 3000 ad agencies it uses globally and further cutting costs by making 30 per cent fewer ads. Unilever has promised to boost more ‘responsible content’ that will tackle concerns like gender stereotypes. It will only work with digital networks that agree to use industry standards of ad metrics and improve consumer experience. Discussions with Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon and SnapChat are already on.

    Facebook and Google are said to account for nearly three-quarters of the total digital advertising in the US. Last year Procter & Gamble (P&G) issued a similar warning before cutting $100 million of its digital ad spend without any negative impact on sales.

    On the other hand, in the UK, Facebook and Google have more than 60 per cent of digital advertising and 90 per cent of all new digital spending.

    A move like this could adversely impact the digital industry and major advertising agency’s revenue.

     

  • Interpublic is first US ad holding company to join UN Global Compact

    Interpublic is first US ad holding company to join UN Global Compact

    MUMBAI: Interpublic Group (IPG) has signed on to the United Nations Global Compact, thus becoming the first US based ad holding company to do so.

     

    The UN Global Compact is an initiative to encourage companies to align strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, and to report on the actions the company takes to advance these societal goals.

     

    “By joining with top companies and organizations around the world in signing onto the UN Global Compact, we affirm our public commitment to sustainability principles that are in line with IPG’s long-term goals both as a public company and a corporate citizen,” said IPG chairman and CEO Michael Roth. “As the creator of some of the world’s most iconic marketing campaigns, we understand our responsibility to ensure that the work we do and how we deliver that work are in sync with the long-term health of our communities. These issues are important to our shareholders, to our 50,000 employees, to our clients, and to consumers. We are proud to become part of this initiative, as signing onto the UN Global Compact furthers our commitment to being accountable and to reporting publicly on our efforts to be a good corporate citizen of the world,” he continued.

     

    “We are very pleased that IPG, one of our communications partners, has signed on to the UN Global Compact. It is crucially important to us that our partners share our values and are committed to principles that are in line with our own mission to make sustainable living commonplace. By becoming a signatory to the UN Global Compact, Interpublic has taken a public step forward in advancing the company’s sustainability goals and reporting on them. We look forward to working with IPG, its agencies and its people on initiatives that will further sustainability efforts on a global scale,” added Unilever chief marketing and communications officer Keith Weed.

     

    The United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to voluntarily align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues. The UN Global Compact is a leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible corporate policies and practices. Launched in 2000, it is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with over 8,000 companies and 4,000 non-business signatories based in more than 160 countries.

  • HUL partners with Internet.org to understand increasing Internet adoption in rural India

    HUL partners with Internet.org to understand increasing Internet adoption in rural India

    MUMBAI: Today, Unilever announced a partnership with Internet.org, a Facebook-led alliance of partners, to understand better how internet access can be increased to reach millions more people across rural India.

     

    Just 13 per cent of the Indian population has internet access and as an initial step, Internet.org and Unilever will carry out a comprehensive study to examine the opportunities to increase internet adoption in rural communities. Apart from infrastructure and cost which are known barriers to connectivity, the partnership will carefully evaluate other educational and cultural factors that also limit internet use.

     

    The mission of Internet.org is to bring the benefits of internet access to all and by leveraging Unilever’s vast expertise on the ground via a comprehensive research and activation programme, the partnership aims to better understand the barriers to connectivity in rural communities. Unilever and Internet.org will leverage this research to inform the development of a series of on-the-ground projects with the aim of improving lives in rural India through better connectivity.

     

    Unilever has extensive experience developing and deploying programmes for rural consumers. For example, Lifebuoy, the world’s leading health soap, has been promoting handwashing awareness in rural India for several years and has successfully enabled women in remote communities to enhance their incomes through the Shakti project.

     

    Lowering the barriers to internet access requires a collaborative effort. Through this partnership, Unilever and Internet.org are pursuing the mission of bringing the benefits of internet access to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected.

     

    Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Unilever:

     

    “Access to the internet is improving in countries like India but there is still a very high proportion of people that would love the opportunity to connect and engage but who cannot enjoy what many of us take for granted. Having no internet access naturally removes all associated opportunities that it brings which, in turn, can be a barrier to learning and ultimately hinder economic development. Through our long history of serving the Indian market we bring an in-depth understanding of rural Indian communities. We hope, together with Internet.org, we can use this know-how to understand better how a vital modern resource can benefit many more millions.”

     

    Chris Weasler, Director of Global Connectivity, Facebook:

     

    “The internet not only connects us to our friends, families and communities, but it’s also the foundation of the global knowledge economy and a way to deliver basic financial services, health and educational tools. In partnership with Unilever, we hope to break down the barriers to access and, in turn, provide millions of people with the information that can help them, and their communities, thrive.”